jp173

So there I was riding some busy suburban roads near my home when the skies just opened. No lightning, just rain so heavy that I very quickly was forced into the middle of my lane (single lane each way) since the sides were impassable.

OK, no problem. People slowed up behind me until I could find a spot to let them pass and they did.

Except for this one jerk from Massachusetts (of course Massachusetts) driving a Ford Taurus. Who went by so close that I felt my pedal scraping his paint (ummm, actually, her paint). I got the license plate number with the intention of contacting my friend the policeman who calls these people and sends letters to their insurance companies.

But what happens three miles down the road? There's Ms. Massachusetts's car, parked at a church.

And what is that in my hand, but my trusty little swiss army knife. And what is that in my other hand, but the valve stems from her two right-side tires.

Gosh but there's a lot of air in a Ford Taurus tire.

bmclaughlin807

nova

ROFL
You got the same attitude as me when it comes to these foolish people.

Personaly when i felt my pedal dig in id have done a few nice pedal strokes and left it at that or maybe have left a note on her car "hey maybe next time you should give a cyclist more room and avoid the 1200+ dollars of damage you just did to your car have a nice day."

supcom

I hope you left a note so the woman knows why you vandalized her car.

bmclaughlin807

I leave the stems... just take the valve cores. Or even just loosen them enough that they're leaking air, and put the caps back on (if they were there in the first place) Looks like nobody touched them... they most likely won't figure it out till they take the wheels to a tire shop.

nova

I side swiped some dumb lady didnt know i made contact till about 3 days later. 30ish or so feet from church parking lot doing 27 28 mph in a 35. Some woman tares around me so she can get to church on time im center in the lane. She has to swerve back over to avoid a head on colision with oncoming trafic. I break hard and swerve right to avoid a crash. And passed her on the left. When i break i also naturaly reach for my down tube shifter and shift down a few gears. So obviously this means i have to keep pedaling as well. I ended up telling the rest of the people at the church what she did. Any how 3 days later im at the gas station picking up some pop. And there sits her car with this perfectly formed spiral scratch up and down both doors and part of the rear quater and front fender.

Yes i did chuckle when i seen it. I must have ever so slightly made contact with her car so light i didnt even notice the extra effort in pedaling. Well i was already appling some front break so not to suprising ai guess.

Was a brand new/old stock saturn looked to be 2005. Still had the little paper thing on the window and the manual fastened to the passenger side. This woman likly never even seen the scratch on her car for days after i seen it lol.

When i seen it i just kind of laughed to my self. Not only did embarass the hell out of her and prob scared her half to death when i road up in to the parking lot behind her but her foolishness cost her a couple grand worth of damage to her new car.

McDave

Now that's some sweet god given justice right there!

Unfortunately the OP in this thread damaged his own kharma by extracting revenge himself, no matter how sweet it was at the moment.

cudak888 

And upon when said idiot cager discovers flat tires, cager will attempt to drive home at 40 MPH with said car in said condition, effectively damaging the road according to law.

-Kurt

LittleBigMan

Don't you think the police will know it was you who flatted her tires?

I don't believe in doing stuff like that. Bad Karma.

nick burns

Doubt it.

UmneyDurak

Better question is can they prove anything?

Wil Davis

Two wrongs do not make one right…

- Wil

Zinn-X

Human laws exist to protect people. Unfortunately, human laws don't always afford adequate protection to bikers (or people in general). Consequence is a natural law in the universe and is sometimes a neccessary substitute for legality. The concepts of "right" and "wrong" are artifical constructs which exist in relation to human law, which wasn't protecting jp173 from harm on a natural level (from being a possible vehicular manslaughter statistic). In this instance, nature--an amoral and cold reality--must supercede humanity. The car got what it had coming to it. Thus, the actions the original poster took are justified being that they were taken as manifestations of the natural law of consequence.

This is obviously bad karma for the original poster, but it is justified bad karma, and perhaps an acceptable loss.

mechBgon

With a scrape on her car and the vehicle's paint on your pedal, you'd have a good shot at making hit-&-run charges stick if you'd called it in. Hit 'em where it hurts by putting that on their driving record.

High insurance premiums... the gift that keeps on giving!

nova

Yeh i suppose i could have. But fact was i didnt even know it happened till 3 days after the fact. I thought i missed her car. Besides between embarrasment (her church) her likly angry husband and the cost to repair the car i think she got what was coming. . To bad a oncoming car didnt graze her drivers side ripping off the mirrors buppers etc.

I seen a accident and i sware it looked like something from the movie. It took the guys driver side fender off both door skins and the quater panel. It was perfectly clean. He was in his lane and some semi with trailer cought him just right as it came over in his lane at about 35 40. No one was hurt just the car

I dont think the driver of the car knew if he should laugh or cry about the damage. It was one of those deals where its got to be a 1 in a million chance of it happening do to the fact every thing has to happen just exactly right.

McDave

I think mechBgon is replying to the original poster Nova.

But yes, he does bring up a good point. Why not call the cops. He's found the car, and it's not going anywhere for awhile since she just got to church, and he has the evidence and knows a friendly cop. Sounds like he was more bent on revenge than justice and that's just plain wrong.

jp173

Well, there was definitely a scrape on her car. But in all that rain I'm not sure that there was any more evidence left on my pedal. I certainly didn't see any. Maybe Gil Grissom could have found the evidence, but I couldn't.

Oh ... and I didn't call the friendly policeman ... precisely because I figured that one action or the other was enough and I didn't want any connecting the dots in case the tire damage was reported.

cudak888 

You know, I'm a bit curious here. What width handlebars does the OP ride on, and what type of pedals? For that matter, what's his shoe size?

I tried fitting myself onto every machine I have, and not once was my shoe inside the pedal. If anyone side-swiped me, they'd end up with either a thick, black mar of rubber sole, or a chunk of my left hand...

-Kurt

nova

I think you mean me. And i have vittoria shoes with time chalenge cleats. I dont remember if i unclipped or not but is possible. But if i tilt my foot just so it does expose some of my pedal wich is more than enugh to do some damage.

My natural reaction in realy close passes like that is to unclip and get my let the hell out of the way.
as for not hitting my hand just lucky saturns sit fairly low and the panels kind of bubble out (least on this one) The fenders doors etc where i got her were out past the window piller. Figure in the fact i was trying to avoid hitting her by trying to turn away little bit of lean in there to. So unclipped or not easy to have the pedal do the damage.


EDIt
Guess you was refering to the OP I didnt see where he mentioned the scraping of the pedal

McDave

Ok, there's a scrape on her car, you got the license number, and you caught up to her car at the church. I'm sure Gil would consider that damning evidence.

No, you didn't call your cop buddy because you decided to take matters into your own hands and didn't want to get caught. Neither the cop nor the CSI got a chance to do their jobs.

(post edited for clarity)